Stay Home: Salt and Straw Base
Lesbe honest, we stan Portland in this house!!! I visited friends in February last year, and have threatened ever since that if I visit in the summer, I won’t leave. One fun thing about Portland is all the quirky local businesses! I didn’t visit a Salt and Straw proper, but I hit up the Wiz Bang Bar for soft serve and asked the nice teen working to make me the most instagrammable concoction they could. They delivered!
Early on in quarantine I knew I’d need more resources in order to learn more about making ice cream. Enter the Salt and Straw cookbook, ordered from Portland fave Powell’s Books. If you can get past the douchey hipster prose, this tome promises that an extremely simple ice cream base will hold up with the creative flavor combos they’re known for. My first several times making ice cream involved tempering eggs and candy thermometers so I was all ears… but also kind of skeptical!
I was so skeptical, in fact, that I made a test batch of vanilla before I was willing to apply this base to more adventurous or committed flavors.
While slightly less rich than the custard base I’ve tried before, this ice cream had a great taste and texture. It was a perrrrfect combo with Joy the Baker’s skillet cookie and some leftover pecans from my Betty Rae’s experiment. I’m not sure this (SUPER EASY) base is something I’ll use exclusively but I’ll definitely keep it in the rotation! Fun fact: if you want it even easier, you can buy Salt and Straw mix from Williams-Sonoma. I haven’t tried it but I might.
What’s your favorite ice cream base? Is the extra work of tempering eggs really necessary?
